LD 1256- “An act to authorize a general fund bond issue for community recycling and household hazardous waste collection”

Testimony of Rep. Sharon Treat

March 27, 2007

Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations & Financial Affairs

Senator Rotondo, Representative Fischer, and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations & Financial Affairs. I am Sharon Treat, and I represent House District 79, and the communities of Farmingdale, Hallowell and West Gardiner. I am testifying today in support of LD 1256, “AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE A GENERAL FUND BOND ISSUE FOR COMMUNITY RECYCLING AND HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION”.

The Maine Legislature has not passed a bond issue to support community recycling and household hazardous waste (HHW) capital infrastructure projects since 2002, when voters passed a bond issue for $1.5 million dollars - $600,000 for recycling, and $900,000 for HHW. That money is long gone. In fact if you go the Waste Management and Recycling Program (State Planning Office) website and click on “grants” you will find the message “There are currently no waste management grants available.” And there won’t be unless we act to pass a bond issue as part of the package you are considering here today.

The previous grants program was initiated in the spring of 2003. The Program received requests for approximately twice the amount available, roughly $3 million. Of the $900,000 HHW infrastructure bond, half the funds were awarded to two regional entities for the construction of the state’s first permanent HHW depots, one in Lewiston, constructed in 2005-06 and one in Portland, to be built this spring. Although these will be regional facilities, obviously the Western, Northern and Eastern regions of the state are not being served as they should be. There is no money to assist those areas of the state in paying for regional collection centers.

The remaining HHW funds or approximately $450,000 was used to assist municipalities with complying with the state law banning the disposal and mandating recycling of mercury-added products, and cathode ray tubes. The money went for the construction of storage facilities for these two waste streams at transfer stations and other municipal locations. Regional programs had priority. According to staff at the Program, every effort was made to assist municipalities, but the office is still getting requests for assistance from small rural communities and from other programs now needing to expand their storage capacity. No money is available for this purpose.

The $600,000 from the 2002 bond for municipal recycling is likewise but a distant memory. Over 60 communities received grants ranging from as little as $2,500 to the largest grant, $97,000 to Bangor regional recycling for a new baling processing system. These grants required a 50% local match, and the state got a big bang for a pretty small buck.

A great example is West Gardiner, which I represent. Back in the fall of 2002 when I was doing my usual campaign at the transfer station, it was pretty much the Wild West system of recycling. That is, even though there was a place to put your glass and your metal etc. the general approach was: back up the pickup, dump into the garbage crusher, and burn rubber on the way out. Perhaps I exaggerate. Imagine my surprise when I returned to the campaign trail this fall and discovered West Gardiner has one of the best recycling programs around, with a volunteer-built sunny “swap shop” where nice stuff is left for others to reuse (and locals shoot the breeze on a Saturday!), attendants help residents find the bins for plastic, glass, newspaper, cardboard, white goods and more, a big truck awaits the next load, and costs at PERC are going down because the town has reduced its waste so much. In fact, at last Saturday’s town meeting, the selectmen reported that in the past 3 years since receiving the state grant and renovating the transfer station, the number of trips to dump municipal waste at the PERC incinerator has been reduced from 186 to 104 trips a year. That’s money saved in West Gardiner and less incinerator ash to be disposed of in the state landfill. What did this cost the state? Just $15,500, matched by the town. I am sure this success story is replicated across the state.

Yet there are many other towns that do not recycle at all or have very limited programs. They were not grant recipients. Of the other towns in my district, Farmingdale has nothing and Hallowell has struggled to keep its program going. There ought to be a regional effort in this area. The Blue Ribbon Commission reviewing Maine’s solid waste policies over the summer recommended that the State “Continue to Support Regional Approaches to Recycling”. The report notes that in the past, the state actively fostered recycling regionalization through grants, and states: “Despite the current level of collaboration, small recycling programs find that there are greater economies of scale to be achieved. As small regional programs look to consolidate or to bring in additional communities, there are upfront administrative costs (legal fees, costs to develop interlocal agreements, expenses of converting systems for compatibility) that present barriers to increased regionalization.” Current recycling requests (again, for which there is NO MONEY) coming into the Waste Management Program are for:

Assistance with collection infrastructure; to expand and develop more efficient collection of materials
• Assistance with expanded processing capacity for regional programs
• Assistance with the promotion and funding of backyard composting efforts
• Assistance with developing organics diversion, for the collection and composting of food wastes on a large regional scale, other than back yard composting
• Assistance with regional construction/demolition/debris collection and processing for recycling.

I note that although Governor Baldacci’s bond package includes $1,685,000 to clean up and close municipal landfills, there is nothing to reduce the waste we are producing and to lessen the need for future landfill space. I suggest that an equal amount should be put toward reviving our municipal recycling and household hazardous waste collection efforts. In 2005, the latest year for which we have figures, the state generated 1,949,644 tons of municipal solid waste. Of this, 708,931 tons or 36.4 % was sent for recycling, 678,535 tons or 34.8% was incinerated in waste to energy facilities (producing ash which must be disposed of in a landfill), 490,799 tons or 25.2% was landfilled (also includes construction debris), and 71,379 tons or 3.6% was exported. Since 1989, Maine has had a 50% statewide recycling goal. The Blue Ribbon Commission reaffirmed this policy because it will save money, preserve valuable landfill space and protect the environment. Lets back up our state policy with action. I urge your support of this bill.